Cold stamping or cold heading is a process that uses dies and punches to create variable-shaped parts from wire without heat. The process is predominantly used in the production of bolts, screws, and other fasteners. It is a quick and cost-effective process that can produce huge numbers of designs, but some shapes and materials are not suitable for cold forming.
Cold stamping is a process that uses dies and punches to create variable-shaped parts from wire. The process is able to reproduce exact specifications reliably. Cold heading, as the name indicates, does not use heat to reshape the raw material; uses the force driven by a punch to push material through a mold into a new shape.
The cold forming process, another name for cold heading, begins with the wire. Depending on the end use of the product, the wire can be various grades of steel, copper, brass or other alloys. The wire enters the process and is sheared by a cutter to a length that produces a volume of wire exactly equivalent to the amount of material needed for the finished product.
The process continues with the formation of the head of the finished piece. The cold forming process is predominantly used in the production of bolts, screws and other fasteners, which must have a specially shaped head. The shape of the head can be produced with a die, a punch, or a combination of the two. If the end of the punch is shaped rather than flat, this forms part of the head shape of the finished part.
Designs used for cold heading are often noted for the number of steps in the process. A two die/three stroke process means that the feed wire is forced into two different die shapes and is struck by three different punching strokes. The number of strokes required is relative to the degree of size reduction required from the feed wire to the die. Generally one shot cannot effectively reduce the size by more than 30%.
If necessary, the cold headed part can be threaded or machined after the cold headed process has been completed. Completed parts are often heat treated to harden and anneale the metal. To finish parts, the surface may be cleaned to remove residual lubricants or coated or plated for certain applications.
Cold heading is a form of extrusion, but it has one advantage over other extrusion methods: it can be used on materials that cannot tolerate heat. It can be more convenient than milling, machining or engraving because it doesn’t waste any raw material. It also costs less than the hot item because it requires no heat. The process is quick and can be set up to produce huge numbers of designs. However, there are some shapes that cannot be produced without heat and some materials that are not elastic enough to be formed without heat, and therefore are not suitable for cold forming.
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